


His Favorite Word Is No

by firecracker189



Series: Baby Mine [11]
Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Gen, Non-Sexual Age Play, big!rhett, little!link, mommy!christy, nsap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-29 18:56:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20087128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firecracker189/pseuds/firecracker189
Summary: Sometimes, Link's favorite word is no.





	His Favorite Word Is No

**Author's Note:**

  * For [radiowavemisfit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiowavemisfit/gifts).

“Okay, so. We-” 

“Please. I’m tired, you’re tired, can’t we just-” Link gestured vaguely and made a frustrated sound. 

Stevie took another sip of her tea. “We have a few ideas, and we already know what the schedule is going to be-- mostly the same as always.” 

Rhett sighed softly. “We’ve...barely made any progress and we’ve been here for…” he checked his watch. “Four hours. You’d think we’d have this down by now, moving into season 16 and all.” 

Stevie gave a tired grin over her mug. “You’d think a lot of things.” She picked up one of the idea post-its thoughtfully, stared at it, and then moved it to the other side of the board. Link visibly cringed, eyes tracking her moves as the blue sticky note ended up in a column of orange ones. It was coincidental, but just what Link needed to start him on a thorough downward spiral. He started picking at his sleeves in a way that meant that he was very close to a sensory overload. Rhett reached over, scribbled the same idea onto a blue note and replaced it. Link relaxed as the orange paper fell into the trashcan. Rhett cleared his throat. “Okay. This is looking good. I think we can come back tomorrow. It’s late. Let’s head home and then come back with fresh eyes in the morning.” Link’s pinched lips and straight back said he was far more exhausted than he let on. Rhett stood up and shut his notebook. “Link. C’mon. Let’s go. It’s chicken nugget night.” 

Link kept fidgeting with his sleeve, trying to get both sleeves to be at even points on his wrists, not paying attention to anything else. 

“ _ Link _ .” Rhett tapped his shoulder, hoping physical interruption would stop the thoughts. “Up. Now. Let’s go.” 

Link stood up slowly and trailed behind him, continuing to fidget as they moved towards the car. By the time they’d gotten to the house, Link was very small and very upset. Rhett was thanking whatever lucky star he had that it was finally a weekend. 

Link had a full scale, class one meltdown before they’d made it upstairs from dinner. It was nearly one in the morning before Rhett finally got him to settle down enough to sleep. ‘Settle down’ was a loose term, if crying himself to sleep counted as settling down. He’d refused pajamas, refused bed, refused toys and refused touch. Everything had been too much for him. Rhett had given up and joined him on the bedroom floor a few feet away until he fell asleep. Meltdown Phase One had nearly been over when it started all over again. But Rhett wasn’t about to let Link go to bed without some kind of protection, and he was afraid that a pull-up wouldn’t help things any. Phase Two kicked off with the diaper and spiraled into laying on the floor hugging Rhett’s arm till he cried himself to sleep. 

The next morning brought nothing better. Rhett’s back caused him to wake up in agony five minutes before six. He was distracted and in pain almost the entire morning, and busy trying to get Stevie the markups she needed for the new scripts. He’d taken a long soak, downed a few of his pills, and then gone to the downstairs office to get his work done. Link was still refusing clothes, though he’d gotten pants on. He came in and out with toys and little things he wanted for Rhett to see, but Rhett was so distracted between the pain and the work that he didn’t give Link much attention. He didn’t like to take the high powered pain pills, they made his brain all fuzzy and he couldn’t work well. But even without them there was still so much on his mind that he couldn’t truly give Link the attention he asked for. 

“Link.” Rhett sighed and waved him off once more. “Please stop biting Jessie and go back in the living room. I’ll be in there later.” He turned his heating pad up higher. “I’m sorry you’re feeling so bad, but I can’t help right now. Okay? Go back and ask Christy.” 

Link stomped his foot and pouted. 

“I mean it, Link. Don’t give me that. Go.” 

Link’s eyes went a shade darker.    
“No.” 

“Really?” 

“No.” 

“No, not really?” 

Link’s jaw jutted out. “No.” he said firmly. 

“You got any other words besides that one?” Rhett had abandoned his laptop now. Clearly something was about to be explosive. 

“No.” 

“No, what, Link?” 

Link let out a frustrated noise. “No!” He yelped. 

“Oh my god, Link, if you need something just say it!” Rhett leaned forward and sighed heavily. 

Link seemed to have forgotten how to work his mouth. Nothing came out when he opened it other than another hugely frustrated sound. 

“Look, if you can’t say anything else but that one word then you’re going to turn around, walk out there and calm down. Come back when you have more words.” 

Enter Phase Three. 

There was a split second between Rhett’s words and Link’s reaction. The barest of inhales and Link was off again, another epic tantrum. Except this time things were...well, probably the most signature Link there had ever been. First came the tears, just the barest hint, enough to make Rhett feel sorry for him. Then the most Link thing to date. 

“Link I don’t know what you’re planning, but I swear to god--” 

Link set his jaw again, let out a little whine and then looked directly at Rhett. 

“What- the hell?” 

Rhett stuck his head out the door. “CHristy-ah,” he cursed softly, putting a hand to his back. “Get in here.” 

“What is it? What’s wrong?” 

Christy hurried into the room. 

“That.” Rhett sat down heavily and rubbed at his back. “That’s wrong. PLease, just…” he waved a hand as Link started crying again. 

“Oh, good. I was worried someone had hurt themselves. This, I can fix.” She said brightly, watching LInk as he stood there in the spreading puddle. “Alright you. Bath. Rhett, take some pills for gods sake, just tylenol if you have to. And get something to eat.” 

Christy grabbed Link’s elbow and dragged him out towards the bathroom. “We’ll talk about this later, right now you’re getting cleaned up and then I’m going to make sure that Rhett’s taken care of. You’re definitely getting a time out for this later.” 

Link made a soft distressed noise and plucked at his wet pants with his fingers.

“I know, honey. I know you feel bad, that wet fabric doesn’t feel good. Go on and get those off. I’ll start a bath and get your clothes while you wash up.” 

She left him in the bathroom while the water ran, grabbed his clothes from the dresser and stopped off to make sure that Rhett had taken his medicine. 

“You need to do something about this. About him.” 

“What do you want me to do?” he asked tiredly. “He’s been such a handful these past couple of days.” 

“You know he has problems now and again but that’s no reason to hold any of this against him. Now I want you up and moving once that medicine kicks in. All he wants is your attention.” 

By the time she’d gotten him bathed and dressed, Link had calmed down. He still fought wearing the diaper, but the bath had gotten him lax and warm. “Come on.” Christy put him in the bedroom just in time to come back to see Rhett finishing the spot treatment on the floor. He straightened up and groaned softly. “He okay?” 

“Right as rain now. Giant tee shirt and no pants. He’s stimming a little, but he’ll be ready for bed soon.” 

“I should go see him.” 

“You should do that. I’ll finish up here.” 

“Hey, baby boy,” Rhett murmured softly. Link was sitting in the floor of the bedroom, rocking back and forth a little and repeatedly stacking his blocks in color order. He looked up with a distressed little whine, reaching for Rhett. “Yeah, I know. Your skin has that icky feeling again, doesn’t it, bo?” Rhett sat down by him and pulled him close, kissing his hair. “Let’s just leave those blocks alone. That’s too much for you right now. Let’s go read your night-night stories and we’ll turn in early.” 

Link, in addition to stimming himself to sleep when he was big, had a very strict routine when he was little. Same bathtime routine, same stories read in the same order at nearly the same time. Rhett was all too happy to oblige the routine, it was familiar for them both, and soothed Link’s anxiety and OCD. Link liked to read different stories through the day, but before bed it had to be  _ Guess How Much I Love You _ and  _ Goodnight, Moon. _ Rhett got him up and settled in bed with his blankie. “Okay, bud. I love you. Let’s read together and then time for sleep.” 


End file.
